


I Think I'm Cursed

by Incoherentbabblings



Series: Tumblr Ask Game Prompts [32]
Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and the Outsiders (Comics), Batman and the Signal (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Family Bonding, Gen, Introspection, Joker War Arc, Mentioned Joker (DCU), Originally Posted on Tumblr, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, chosen family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27068020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Incoherentbabblings/pseuds/Incoherentbabblings
Summary: Cassandra and Duke have one last conversation before they head back to Gotham for this supposed Joker War.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Duke Thomas
Series: Tumblr Ask Game Prompts [32]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1970230
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14
Collections: Batcest-B-Gone





	I Think I'm Cursed

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt:
> 
> _“I’m telling you. I’m haunted.”_

Duke found Cassandra sitting at the top of a glass bank building, high above the city below. She heard him coming, because of course she did, and looked back at him lingering nervously. She jerked her head over, and Duke joined her to watch the sunset. They sat in silence for a long time. They had done it before, with the mood much lighter than it was now. Duke stared at his gloved hands, sighed, then took off his helmet. 

“Okay?” Cassandra asked.

“To be honest…” he trailed off, shoulders hunched. “No.”

Cassandra looked at him, eyebrows drawn up. Duke grimaced and stroked his visor. 

“Me too,” Cass confirmed.

“Batman is calling us back to Gotham. The Joker…” Duke twitched and chewed his mouth. “Maybe we can end it. Finally.”

“I do not know him.”

“The Joker?”

Cassandra nodded.

“You don’t want to. He’s worse than anyone. Worse than your mother.”

Cassandra snorted a laugh, staring directly at the sun and squinting. “Tim said he is evil. Nothing but evil.”

“Hollow,” Duke said. “An empty can, rattling and making as much noise as possible.”

“He hurt you. He hurt your family.”

Duke ran his fingers along the points of his helmet, musing aloud, “I want vengeance for them. But I’m also – I’m also...”

“Scared?”

“Terrified,” he confessed, chest heaving with the effort. He closed his eyes. Everything he had gone through these past months, with Ra’s, with Shiva, with Batman himself, he didn’t want to believe it had all been for this. For the Joker. He did not want his time on Earth to be defined by such a man, and yet…

“I’m telling you. I’m haunted.”

Cassandra looked at him, confused. “What?”

“Everything we do, everything I do. It all comes back to him. And I hate it. Always in the back of my mind, I can’t think of my parents without feeling grief because of him. But, at the same time, I wonder, if it weren’t for him, would I have met Batman and you and the rest of the family? Would I have been able to help people the way I can? That frightens me. I don’t want to give him credit, but the thought is there. And I can’t shake it.”

Cassandra listened, and found – not for the first or last time – she did not have the words for comfort. She tried to empathise, saying,

“I feel the same. But different people.”

“Your mom and dad?” Duke asked. 

Cassandra smiled thinly, finally looking away from the orange sun. She watched the cars streaming by below.

“I am here because of them. What I do…because of them. But I want to be more than _them_. What they gave me.”

Duke shook his head. “You made your choice to be more. Not your parents. Your choices matter more than what was done to you.”

Cassandra's smile turned a little smug. “Same at you.”

Duke snorted, seeing what she had done.

“But…” Cassandra continued, smile falling to a pensive look. “Words are words. You do not believe me.”

“No,” he murmured. “But thanks for trying Cassie.”

She wrapped her wiry arms around him. “We will be more in Gotham.”

“You ready to go?”

Cassandra nodded, accepting his changing of the subject. “I miss Stephanie and Barbara. Want to do good.”

The sky went dark, and the sunlight faded. With it came a heaviness and discomfort. The moment of quiet was at an end. The Batman and the hell that was Gotham City was calling. A weight settled in the base of Duke’s chest, and he sat up straighter.

“Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on the 19th of September 2020.


End file.
